


A Giving Heart

by TheIcyMage, TheItalianScribe (TheIcyMage)



Series: Transcendence AU [5]
Category: Gravity Falls, Gravity Falls Transcendence AU
Genre: Gravity Falls: Transcendence AU - Freeform, Just be warned that this isn't a happy-go-lucky story, This may possibly get a bit dark later, but I don't want to spoil anything
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 05:31:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5404862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyMage/pseuds/TheIcyMage, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIcyMage/pseuds/TheItalianScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if a certain blonde cinnamon bun’s kindhearted nature were genetic? AKA, a fic about Toby's father raising baby twins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

     As he knelt there, crying over the body of his falling wife, Raphael wondered when his luck had run sour. He couldn’t understand any of it. The doctors came in moments later to offer a sympathetic touch and explanation of the complications that led to Rachael’s death. He barely noticed their words. They took away the children, not even named yet, and ushered him to an empty room with colors that he would have noticed in a better state were warm and comforting. They handed him some warm drink and a sat him at a table with a holographic system that projected the recordings of a nurse going over the stages of grief, followed by a list of symptoms and advice related to grief and being a parent. Once the consoling therapy session was over, they gave him the choice to take the hospital’s transportation system to the home of someone close to him or to stay at the hospital in the grief counseling wing. They assured him that they would take care of the twins and call him when they were ready to be dispatched, if he was still willing to be their parent.

     He didn’t respond at first. Then, quietly, he sighed the first name that came to mind. The doctors nodded, sent one nurse to call, left another nurse to keep an eye on him, and left to take care of the other patients. It wasn’t long until Rachael’s sister, Becca, arrived. She was red-eyed and her makeup diluted an running with tears, but her face and breaths strong. They didn’t speak on the ride to her house, but when they arrived, Becca brewed them each a cup of chamomile and both let wave of tears wash over them as they were pushed down in a sea of grief.

\-----

    By the second day, Becca was ready to talk again. She tried telling endless stories, first in a happy light, then in a bitter remorse. All were about Rachael. Raphael could tell she was hitting another stage of grief, but he was reminded that the gentleness of their first day was an anomaly. By the third day, she was asking about what his plans would be. Would he be raising them alone? Would he need some help? Would he take a break from his job to take care of the babies? How was he going to pay the rent? The questions kept coming, and were repeated. All he could offer in answers was a few movements of his head and some mumbles. He had been staying with Becca for several days when she asked the question that had floated around his mind since it had been raised in the hospital.

“Are you even going to keep them?”

He was in the process of composing a message to his boss. His fingers froze and he whipped his head up.

“I mean,” she began pacing, “Raising a kid takes a lot of time and money. Twins take twice as much. I was iffy when R…it was announced that you two were keeping them. With two of you, the chances were shaky, but there. With just you…”

“I don’t know if I can handle it,” he admitted at his communication grid, “But-”

“You shouldn’t! Let me put this into further perspective. I did the research and you will need to pay constant attention to the babies. If you do it alone, you can’t go to work for a while. But you will need to go to your job and when it happens, you’ll need someone to babysit. I’m not that fond of kids, I’ll admit, and I have a busy schedule myself, which means you’ll need to hire someone. That costs money. On top of that, you will need to add the cost of food and clothes to your usual expenses of water and electricity and everything else. It’s not possible!

"So, I ask again. Are you still going to keep them?”

Before he could answer, his grid filled the room to alert them of a newly received message. It was from the hospital, announcing that the unnamed twins were ready to be brought home or transferred to an adoption center.

    He considered what would happen if he took that offer. The twins would be left with countless other orphans. Sure, they were likely to find a home, but they could be separated and may even feel deserted. There wasn’t even a guarantee they would feel loved. He knew the childhood that could bring. And he couldn’t bring himself to put the two lives, lives he helped create, through that. And he couldn’t betray Rachael like that. Not when she had so desperately wanted children. Not when she had thrown so many names at them. Not when the day of, she had fought through the pain by focusing on what it would be like to have children and narrowing down the names. She was down to the last four choices by the end. For a boy, Tobias or Acacio. For a girl, Raphaella or Melita. Now he knew what to choose.

“Absolutely,” he told Becca as he made his way to the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bring Tobias and Raphaella home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphael’s first months of being a father.

On the way to pick up his twins from the hospital, he had retraced Rachael’s steps in choosing baby names. It didn’t take long to find a summary of the book of Tobit. The name Sarah almost instantly popped out at him and he decided to make that his daughter’s second name. His mind wondered to a conversation he and his wife had ages ago about names. He had mentioned that his name had been passed down for generations. It was supposed to mark a kind heart, but he recounted the annoyance brought from having the same name as his father and grandfather.

“Promise me that if we have a son, his name won’t be Raphael.” His eyes met hers across the table. He tried to make it a serious moment, but she giggled away the awkward spell he inadvertently cast.

“Alright.” She giggled, “I promise not to name our unborn son Raphael.”

He should have expected that she would take advantage of having one daughter and son. He wondered if her soul was watching him and laughing. He missed that laugh. Some form of revenge was in order, lest she have the last laugh. It might not have done much, but he decided in that moment to name their son after Rachael’s father. William was a good father-in-law and would have made a great grandfather. He told classic “dad” jokes and pushed Raphael to grow. Hopefully, he could do the same for Raphaella Sarah and Tobias William.

\-----

Becca had been right. The twins were a handful. When Tobias was sleeping, Raphaella was crying for food, for burping, for everything. When Tobias was awake, he would rarely cry. One of the first times he had cried was when Raphaella was asleep. He had woken her up that time, and she announced it with a chorus of wails. Raphael thought he was going to snap for a moment then. After that, Tobias was silent with sad, pleading eyes. He would just stare at Raphael as if he really needed something, but couldn't bring himself to make a sound. Half of him felt guilty for this change in his son. Half of him was glad that it meant half the screams. The second half soon crumbled, as his daughter seemed to decide she could and would scream for two.

After the first week of raising them, he started calling his daughter by her middle name. He decided that overall, it was a sweet gesture on Rachael’s part to want one of their children named after him, but it felt weird to direct his name at someone else. And boy, did he find himself saying their names.

“Tobias, please. Give me something to work with. Are you hungry? Gassy? Do I need to change your diaper?”

“Raphaella Sarah, hold on a moment while I figure out what your brother needs.”

“Is that better, Tobias? Oh! You’re actually drinking your milk. You _were_ hungry. I got it right!”

“Sarah, why won’t you take the milk? I know that’s what you wanted. Fine. Let’s see if Tobias wants it.”

     At some point, Raphael had gotten a hang of how to take care of them. He started guessing right with Tobias, and Sarah had developed a few telling signs of what she wanted. Licking their lips when they were hungry, shifting around when they were uncomfortable. Sarah even had a distinct cry for when she wanted to be rocked to sleep. There were times when he couldn't guess with Tobias, but oddly enough, Sarah would soon after cry for something and Raphael would give them both what Sarah wanted. There were times when Tobias seemed more satisfied with the treatments than the sibling that had asked for them.

By the time he was a bit more experienced, his emergency vacation period had ended. He had first called to Becca for help, and she had begrudgingly worked out a schedule out, but it was short lived. She was less and less available to help him and he finally caved. He hired a nurse. The nurse wasn't too pricey, but it was certainly an added expense. He had to rely on his and Rachael's savings account to pay the bills. The arrangement lasted only a few months. One day, he came home for work and before he could ask about the babies, the nurse told him in a shaky voice that they couldn't take it anymore. He had asked what they had meant. All they did was stare directly at Tobias sleeping in his cradle and shiver. Later that night, he contacted the nurse through the agency to work out the payment owed. They were calmer then and, after apologizing for their behavior, recommended a nurse who “wouldn’t See the what I could.” Raphael again tried for an explanation.

“You’re lucky you aren’t like me. Blind ignorance is bliss.” They typed.

“What do mean?” Raphael kept checking the "Chat with a Representative" tab for a long time after he entered the message. He contacted the recommended nurse and checked back. Minutes had passed. He made a shopping list and checked his budget. Now the chat had been stagnant for a half hour. He checked for parenting advice and let himself take whatever leisure time he had. An hour. He might have waited for longer, but Sarah’s “Change me” cry tore him away from his communication grid. He let all the programs shut down and returned to being a father.


End file.
